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I just finished the second book in the Stormlight Archive series, and I have questions. I regret missing out on the discussions when the book was new. If I'm not supposed to know the answer to a question yet, please just say so. If I'm missing some context from other books by Sanderson, I'd appreciate someone pointing me to the right book(s).

1. In the first book, we learned that the Heralds decided to abandon their duty because win or lose, they'll spend their time until the next desolation in hell. We get confirmation in this book that the Heralds and their Honorblades are the work of the Almighty. Why were the Heralds being tortured by Honor for doing good?

2. Why weren't the Heralds' blades bound to them by the Almighty? Heralds appear to be superhuman even without their blades, but that wouldn't stop someone from trying to steal them once they figured out the swords are what let the Heralds use magic.

3. Who took the crazy Heralds' blade? I thought Dalinar might have it because the Herald was in his care, but the blade he thought was his turned out to be just a regular shard blade (until that point, I was afraid Amaram might steal it and pretend to be a surgebinder and make Kaladin's life suck even more). Was it Wit?

4. Aside from needing to prolong Kaladin's suffering for story purposes, why did it take so long for Dalinar to figure out out he was telling the truth about Amaram? He'd seen Kaladin hold his own against someone with shards more than once. Did he really think Amaram was going to be like "gee, I'm glad you asked! I'd been wanting to come clean about that for awhile now". Or that any of his attendants were going to say "yeah, our boss totally stole the most valuable thing in the world from that sub-human dark eyes. Honor forever!". Adolin is dumb as a stump and even he saw through Amaram.

5. What boon did Dalinar get from the Nightwatcher? I know the price was that he can't remember his wife, but I don't recall it being stated what got out of the exchange.

6. Is it just me or is the Diagram faction ridiculous? Obviously it gets some things right, but some of those things the king kept thinking of doing on his "smart" days were hilariously stupid. It almost feels like a group of conspiracy theorists who are obsessed over nonsense but are doing enough right to feel they are on top of the world.

7. What happened to all of the Parshendi civilians that escaped from Eshonai? Dalinar and his army don't run across them, and it was said that the evil storm they conjured would travel around the world transforming parshmen everywhere. So were they forced into storm form too?

8. Is there some kind of chart that explains the ideals of the various Radiants and their powers? I thought of looking it up in a wiki, but I don't want to be spoiled on who gets what. I just want to be clear on what powers are out there.

9. Is there more to Kaladin's vows? According to Jasnah, each Radiant gets the power of two surges. Kaladin's only power so far seems to be gravity manipulation.

10. Why did the Almighty keep using Heralds after the Radiants appeared? Radiants are totally superior: they consume less stormlight when surgebinding and their weapons can change shape based on need and preference.

11. What vow did Shallan make with Pattern, and why did she get a blade out of the deal so much faster than Kaladin did?

1: A lot of this is answered in Oathbringer actually, so I'll say Read and Find Out (after you've read Edgedancer that is).

2: They're basically just Shardblades, and work like them. So they are in fact bound to the Herald or person bonded to them. That was what they did in the prologue of The Way of Kings, they all broke their bonds to their Honorblades, leaving them where anybody else could claim them.

3: RAFO

4: This was actually pretty realistic to people in real life who pull the wool over the eyes of other people in the community. How often do you hear about some "upstanding" member of society do something abhorrent, and people struggle to believe it because they put on such a good front? That's Amaram. Dalinar just found it that hard to believe until he started digging. Remember that this is the same guy that kept trusting Sadeas in Way of Kings lol, Dalinar can be incredibly naive.

5: Yes, it was never stated what he got in return. Maybe you'll find out in the next book, maybe not. :P

6: There's a popular theory that Taravangian got a boon and bane from the Nightwatcher. As for the Diagram itself, well, lets put it this way. They know a lot more about what's going on than anyone else. But you are right, they are absolutely fanatics. They know the end of the world is nigh, that sort of thing always brings out the crazies lol.

7: RAFO

8: You're right to avoid the wiki's, we actually don't know what the ideals for all the Orders are right now. Windrunners (Kaladin) are about saving people, Skybreakers (Darkness) are about upholding the law, Bondsmiths (Dalinar) are about unification, Edgedancers (Lift) are about remembering the forgotten, and Lightweavers (Shallan) are about lies and truth. The rest are either brought up in the next novel or haven't been revealed yet.

As far as powers go though... Windrunners: Adhesion and gravity, basically they can fly and walk on walls. Lightweavers create illusions and can soulcast. Skybreakers can fly like Windrunners, I forget the second power. Edgedancers have Progression (basically healing) and friction control. Elsecallers (Jasnah) can Soulcast and transport between the Physical and Cognitive Realms (aka between Shadesmar and Roshar). Those are the ones you should know about right now.

9: The thing is that the second Windrunner power, adhesion, is typically used alongside gravitation. For example whenever he runs on walls or sticks someone or something to them. That said some Radiants favour some of their surges over others (Shallan with Lightweaving over Soulcasting).

10: There are things that seperate them from normal Radiants. RAFO.

11: Every Order progresses at different rates, Lightweavers presumably get their Shardblade with the First Ideal (which is a universal ideal across the Radiant Orders). They're a pretty unconventional order too, aside from the First Ideal they don't even swear them.

8. Yes, but I'm not sure about spoilers. If I get a chance I'll try to find one and check it.

9. RAFO

10. He can't just change the Oathpact on a whim.

11. As explained in Words of Radiance, she only made the base vow (Life before Death etc.). After that, she progresses by speaking truths. And she's further along the progression in part because she's been a proto-Radiant for a lot longer.